


Retrieving The Past Vignettes

by Moonlessmondays



Series: Retrieving the Past verse [1]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, OQ Prompt Party, Teen oq, being adorable and cute, retrieving the past verse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-22
Updated: 2018-03-21
Packaged: 2019-04-06 07:47:27
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14052279
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moonlessmondays/pseuds/Moonlessmondays
Summary: Vignettes from the Retrieving the Past Verse. Now open for prompts.First oneshot for OQ Prompt part day 3, with the prompt "First date"





	Retrieving The Past Vignettes

**Author's Note:**

> OQ Prompt Party   
> Day 3: Wednesday  
> Prompts: For Retrieving the Past, first date.  
> Jealous Robin/Regina
> 
> Enjoy!

 

Robin has known Regina for a long time. A very long time. In fact, he’s known her for most of his sixteen years of existence, had known her since they been buck naked in twin plastic pools in their backyards, after his parents have move next to Regina’s parents when he had been a mere tot. He had watched her grow and had been there through all the lost teeth, the broken bones, and every award and accolade Regina has ever achieved. They have been best friends all their lives, and after a brief period when Regina had been mad enough at him to sock him on his jaw good and proper, after he had stolen an apple from her precious tree. 

But he knows her, and had watched her develop from a young babe to an awkward pre-teen, and now as a girl of sixteen, fresh, young, and sweet. And though there are days when she remains to be a puzzle to him, a conundrum to his young boy’s mind, one thing is for sure, and that is he’s in love with her.

It hasn’t taken him very long in his adolescence for him to figure  _ that _ out. 

He is convinced that apart from his own mum who is amazing in her own way, Regina is the most amazing girl he has ever met and he’s ever so lucky to know her much less be called her best friend. It’s difficult, very difficult, for him to let her know of his true feelings without a.) the possibility of her rejecting him, and b.) without messing up the relationship they already have. And though it pains him to watch on the sidelines as every boy in all four corners of the town drop like flies down on Regina’s feet, trying to get her to notice them, he’s not really apt to risk it.

Well, at least that’s what he’s been thinking until Regina had accepted a date from a guy named Daniel who is only a year ahead of them, with the blue eyes, the most defined jaw, and the most perfect jaw in the entirety of Storybrooke, Maine. And it also just happens that she had been crushing on the guy for as long as Robin can remember, after she’d seen him working as the stable hand in the farm where she’d been training to ride.

Of. Fucking. Course.

So it had been Robin’s little conundrum that his best friend, the girl he swears he is in love with, the same girl he plans on marrying if she ever wakes up and spares him a glance amongst her adoring fans, is now going out to date this other guy Daniel, and he can’t do anything about it because he’s sworn to himself that he would do anything to prevent ruining his friendship with her, even if it means hiding the true nature of his feelings from her.

“Robin,” the very same girl whines now, throwing the dress she’s been holding up at him, and he barely dodges it as he leans to the side and then stretches out in her bed. He’s so far deep into the friendzone that she doesn’t mind him hanging out in her bedroom and  _ asking him _ to help her out to find clothes for her date with  _ another _ boy.

“What?” he asks, snapping himself from his reverie and looking at her in faux innocence, even if he just wants to tell her straight up not to date that horse boy because he’s no good for her. But then he asks himself what’s next, and he comes up blank because he cannot fucking well just grab her and shake her and then beg her to date  _ him _ instead, because well...that won’t fucking do, now would it?

“You’re absolutely of no help to me,” she grouses, her bottom lip jutting out in a pout as she crosses her arms against her chest and looks at him in disdain. “You promised you’re going to help me!”

He  _ had _ promised, hadn’t he? But well, that had been him trying to be her friend. Right now, he just wants the ground to swallow him up whole.

“Why didn’t you ask Mary Margaret to help you with this?” he asks her, and he knows it to be a valid point, but the look in her eyes makes him want to scoop up the words and put them inside his mouth and swallow it back...if only.

“I don’t want  _ her _ opinion,” she tells him shyly, looking away from him and down the floor as she flushes. She looks too fucking adorable, and god, he wishes he could just walk over to her and kiss her senselessly, wishes she were his and it’s their date she’s preparing for, wishes for so many things that he knows won’t come to be. He watches her bite down on her lip (he wishes he could bite down on her lip  _ too _ ), before her eyes rise to meet his. “I want  _ yours.” _

It isn’t the only thing that’s his that he wants her to want, too, his surname and his heart being on top of the list, and he would be so fucking happy that she values his opinion that much—he is, he really is, actually—if only it doesn’t hurt this  _ fucking _ much.

“Regina, I don’t know shit about clothes. I wear the same kind of shirt every chance I get and have about a dozen of it in three different colors only,” he reminds her. “I’m not exactly the most fashionable person in the world.”

She sighs. And he could swear she is turning redder by the minute, from her roots to her toes, and he wonders why until she the next few words she utters hit him hard on the chest. “I just want to feel beautiful,” she confesses shyly, and it pains him greatly that she doesn’t have a stinking clue how  _ gorgeous  _  she is. “When I look at you and I see your eyes light up sometimes in the way they do...I almost feel like I am.”

His heart aches something terrible inside his chest and he shakes his head, opens his arms for her. She doesn’t need much more prompting than that, rushes right into his embrace, and snuggles into his arms, finding comfort in the same way he finds his in her embrace. He just wishes it meant more to her, the same way it does to him.

“Babe,” he says as he tilts her head from where she’s snuggled against the crook of his neck, but he knows her, knows every last bit of her insecurities, and knows what she needs when she needs it. “You  _ are _ beautiful, the most beautiful woman I know. And it’s not just because you have the most perfect face and body, but because you are  _ stunning, in every way.” _ He leans down and places a kiss on her forehead. “And if that stupid stable boy doesn’t see that, doesn’t even try to see past your physical beauty, then he’s an idiot, okay? You don’t have to work hard to impress him, you’re already perfect.”

He sees the tears wet her eyes and gather in her lashes, but she doesn’t cry, only smiles a watery smile at him and hugs him tight, looks at him seriously with that ridiculously beautiful, deep brown eyes, and he wants to get lost in them, wants to drown in her and never come up for air.

It feels as though time slows down and everything else around them disappears for one moment as they both look deep into each other’s eyes. He can feel himself lean in, watches her meet him halfway, too, when of course, like every shitty romantic comedy she’d begged him to watch with her, her phone. Fucking. Rings.

It’s Daniel, telling her he’ll come pick her up at six, and that he can’t wait to see her. A smile spreads on her lips, and Robin has this overwhelming urge to punch the guy on his face the moment he sees him, but kicks that though to the curb. He isn’t jealous.

He doesn’t really have the right to be. 

But just like that, the moment is broken, they are snapped back to reality, and she’s getting up and out of his arms, walking to her huge closet and rummaging through it to find something to wear for her fucking date. 

**...**

 

When the clock strikes half past four, Regina had been quick to kick him out of the bedroom, telling him she’s going to get ready for her date, and that she’ll tell him all about it tomorrow.

He almost begs her not to tell him about it, he doesn’t really care for the details, doesn’t want to know how Daniel gets the right to kiss her after the date, because that’s how it works, right? But he fights the urge to do that, because she will ask him why, will be upset that she can’t tell him this as she tells him everything, and then that would lead to him having to tell her that he’s in love with her and it’s like being shot a thousand arrows every time he hears her talk about Daniel.

So instead of spilling his guts to her, he agrees, nods noncommittally at her, and tells her that he’ll see her soon, have fun on her date (he tells himself she’ll have a miserable time to console his bruised heart, but he knows that’s not true). She beams at him and kisses his cheek, bids him goodbye and shuts the door of her bedroom. 

He finds his way out, knows exactly how because he has grown up in her house as much as she had. He passes by her dad on his way out, and he smiles politely, greets the old man hello and then goodbye before he crosses over to the hedge and into his own backyard.

He’s holed up in his room within minutes, and he turns his music player on, blasts the sound to drown out the noise from outside, hoping it would drown out the sound of his heart breaking, too. It doesn’t, nothing ever does anyway, and so he just lets himself wallow in self pity, cursing himself for not making a move on her and trying, and then going back on his argument that he’s not at all willing to risk his friendship with her in case she doesn’t feel the same.

By quarter to five, he hears his cell phone ringing, and he picks it up, sees that it’s Regina asking to meet him at the hedge. He doesn’t quite know what for, and for a second he entertains the dreadful idea that Daniel had cancelled on her last minute and he gets the irrational need to just punch the guy. He has many other reasons to punch him, all of which Robin has tried to dissuade himself from, but if Daniel hurts Regina this way, then there’s no saying anything can actually stop him from doing it.

Sighing, Robin gets up from his bed where he had spent the last hour lounging and drowning his stupid thoughts, to meet Regina.

When he spots her, he feels as though he might actually have a heart attack at a very young age.

He knows her.

He has grown up with her and has been with her at every turn, has watched her go from climbing trees to experimenting with makeup, but he has never quite seen her like  _ this _ . He feels so, so fucking jealous of that Daniel who gets to see her like this. He feels angry that Daniel is the guy whose arms she’s going to hold onto tonight as she walks inside a restaurant, looking like...well,  _ breathtaking. _

“So, do I pass?” she asks him nervously when she sees him, twirling around in her beautiful dress for good measure. He can see her anxiety rising at every second he doesn’t answer but god damn it, he cannot find the words.

Beautiful, gorgeous, stunning, eighth wonder of the world....they’re just a few words running through his head, and none of them seem like the right thing to say. They all seem so dry and so paltry compared to the beauty that he’s even allowed to behold right now. The word hasn’t been invented yet, to describe her, and yet, “Don’t go on a date with him, Regina, please,” somehow escapes him, and fuck it to hell, that’s not what he means to say.

Her eyes widen and anger settles in them before she looks down and dejected, and quite rightfully upset. He is a fucking idiot, had he mentioned that he is?

“Robin,” she murmurs, and she looks about to cry, and hell no, that won’t do. His words have been dropped onto the space between them now without the option to get them back and shove them where she can  _ un-hear  _ them, so he just mans up, gathers what little bit of courage he has in him to just say it out right.

Honestly, there isn’t anything left to do, and he might as well just admit it to her. He takes the small distance between them in quick strides, stomping on his regretful choice of words on his way as he thinks of a better way to phrase this.

Nothing short of I love you would do, if it’s up to him, but he doesn’t want to shock her any further.

He cups her face in his hands and leans down to do what he should have done they turned old enough to date, because though sixteen is still very young, it feels like they have already wasted a decade not being together like they are supposed to.

She is soft and pliant in his hands, and she doesn’t hesitate to kiss him back, which is surprising. Their kiss isn’t anything to write home about, but it’s intimate and exciting, the thrill of the first time running through them as their lips press against each other over and over again, and if Robin has ever doubted where his home is, he doesn’t now, not anymore...because right here, right now, he’s found it... _ she _ is his home.

She pulls away when the need for air becomes strong, though Robin would have gladly kissed her until the sun rises. “Robin, what...” she doesn’t get to finish because he presses his lips against hers again.

“I don’t want you to go on a date with him,” he asks of her, repeating the words he’s so carelessly thrown around earlier. “I don’t want you date him because I want you to date  _ me _ , instead. I have wanted to date you before I even know what that word means, and I know there is a big possibility that you won’t or don’t feel the same for me, or that this might even ruin our friendship but I can’t go on without asking anymore, I can’t watch you with him, or other—,”

It is his turn to be cut off this time when Regina throws her arms around him and kisses him, and he feels it, feels what he’s been fearing she doesn’t feel, and good god, he feels like the luckiest bastard in the world.

“I don’t want to date anyone but you, Robin,” she tells him when they pull away.

He looks at her dubiously, a bit bewildered. “You had a crush on Daniel for so long Regina, don’t deny it. You were excited to be dating him,” he tells her, and there is no accusation there, just stating hard facts.

She frowns at him. “That’s because you haven’t asked me out and I’m afraid you never will!” she tells him, making him shake his head, and that’s fair enough, he thinks as he kisses her one more time for good measure because he can’t quite believe this is happening.

“Does this mean you’re going on a date with me and not him?” he asks her, to be sure.

She chuckles, “Yes, exactly,” she answers, smiling that mega-watt smile that melts him every single time. “Just tell me when and where, I’ll be ready.”

He pulls her in his arms and holds her close, wishing they could go now but knows he needs a bit more planning than that, and she still needs to go and tell Daniel she can’t go, she  _ won’t _ go with him.

An idea forms in his head and he beams at her. “I have an idea,” he says.

**...**

 

It’s about an hour later when they reconvened to the spot they had been last together, and Robin couldn’t help himself, doesn’t even try to, he pulls her close and kisses her soundly. There’s something about being able to do that  freely that brings elation in him. They’re not official yet, and he is afraid to ask until he gets a few dates in, but he knows that this is real. They won’t be seeing anyone else, that is for sure, but he isn’t quite certain Regina is ready to put a label to what they have, so until then, he’ll be content to just be with her, and be the only one who gets to kiss her.

Regina smiles against his lips and then gives him one small peck before she pulls away.

“So what’s your brilliant idea?” she asks him, and instead of telling her, he shows her instead, pulling her deeper into  _ his  _ backyard, until they are in the middle of his mother’s rose garden. It’s the perfect time of the year and all of the roses are in bloom. Robin thanks his mother’s more romantic and whimsical streak that propelled her to wrap the trees surrounding the area with fairy lights  because it sets the mood.

She looks at him, dazed and confused, but happy and pleased and honestly, that’s all he wants.

“What?” she asks, unable to finish the question as she marvels over the sight in front of her.

In the middle of the garden lay a blanket where cold meat cuts and cheese and fruits are sat waiting for them. He’d wanted to de-cork some wine but  isn’t sure how severely his parents would kill him if he does, so he settles for sparkling grape juice.

“I didn’t want your outfit to go to waste,” he tells her, answering the question she never gets to voice. She had called Daniel and had cancelled on him, told him she’s not ready for a date after all, and that she’s not the one for him and she’s sorry. She feels guilty, he knows, but he doesn’t want her to have bad thoughts right now, because this should be some sort of celebration. “You look so breathtaking, Regina.”

She blushes prettily at his words and she reaches up on her tip toes (her heels long been forgotten now, and thank god for that) to place a kiss on his cheek. He winds his arm around her waist and pulls her closer, turns his head sideways to press his forehead against hers and nuzzle their noses together.

_ I love you _ . It’s at the tip of his tongue, but he doesn’t want to say in case she’s not ready. He really doesn’t want to push his luck.

“This is so beautiful,” she breathes out, her eyes falling close, and he’s not sure if she means the moment, or the roses in bloom, all he knows that they are here right now, and all of this it’s all real. 

This is now, and this is real.

And maybe they’d wasted a bit of time hiding their feelings for each other, but as he leans in to kiss her once more, trying their new found freedom for size, he thinks, perhaps, it’s also all about the timing.

 

**Fin**

**March 22, 2018**


End file.
